


Come back

by mynameissrain



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste Needs Help, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Needs a Hug, Hurt Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Inspired by Music, Luka Couffaine Loves Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Music, Post-Episode: s03 Chat Blanc, Protective Plagg (Miraculous Ladybug), Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:20:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23982958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mynameissrain/pseuds/mynameissrain
Summary: Ladybug sacrificed herself to stop Chat Blanc. Now everything has gone back to normal except for some people who's still missing and that Ladybug died. It'll never be the same fir Chat Noir.However, a melody keeps him company every night,  and he can't help but wonder from whom does that sad music come from.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 2
Kudos: 34





	Come back

_“Tell your friend thay in his death, a part of you dies and goes with him. Wherever he goes, you also go. He will not be alone. ” Jiddu Krishnamurti._

Adrien wasn't sure where he had found those words, but no doubt he had repeated them so many times in his head that he had learned to hear it's echo through his body; sometimes as a badly wounded sigh, sometimes as a more pessimistic heartbeat. As if, somehow, that pain and that loss had been impregnated in his skin.

With each passing day it became more painful, and at times he felt as if he had no place left in his lungs to breathe with so many sightings made of smoke, haunted by the memory wherever he went.

_"Disappointed, my Lady?" He questioned with a cold, mocking voice, seeing Ladybug's hopeless face when she crushed his rattlesnake and the akuma didn't appear. Chat Blanc reached out, offering her a handshake. "Well, I suppose we are now in the same game: you broke my heart and from your face I assume that we are now even."_

_Ladybug stared in horror, the crushed rattlesnake lying on the ground. She felt her muscles stiff, unable to move as Chat's laughter out of tune roamed the streets of their lifeless beloved Paris, buried under the rubble of its own beauty._

_«It can't be», she told herself, swallowing with difficulty the tears that were accumulating in her throat. «There has to be a solution... »_

_Chat Blanc, gloating on his victory, turned around and breathed in, filling his lungs with air.–How didn't it burn? Why didn't the remnants of the fear of the citizens whom Ladybug couldn'tt save burn his throat?, she wondered; she felt that if she tried to breathe beyond her stifled sobs she would no longer be able to hold her tears and her legs would bend, falling to the ground, defeated, so how was it so easy for him to breathe?_

_Before them (and around them), the ruins rested like the bony memories of dragons and dinosaurs, slowly sinking into the cold waters that, like a powerful nightmare, swallowed their city and everything that had been lived in it,–the cold moon flaking itself over the heavy clouds that slowly froze and would one day fall from the sky like the marble tears of a mother who witnessed the death of all her children._

_Ladybug closed her eyes and tried to compact as much of her as she could in her heart, feeling that it was afraid of beating again and everything turned out real, that none of it was a bad dream, that she really was trapped in that dystopian future._

_“It doesn't matter that we are the only ones left, bugaboo" said a mocking memory in her mind, the voice of Chat Noir, serene and vivacious as it demanded to be, tangling in her throat, forging a knot that prevented her from swallowing, “since you'll fix everything in the end.”_

_Tears began to slide down her face, surprising her when she felt them, warm on her skin. Her heart weighed, and she felt that something in her was missing like a void between her ribs that made her feel vulnerable._

_However, Ladybug took a deep breath and did her best to_ _clear her throat._

_"You're right, Chat noir..."_

"Adrien!" Plagg exclaimed, giving him a barely perceptible nudge, which brought him back to reality. He stood up, disoriented and looking around; he had fallen asleep at the desk again, reviewing without a pause the news about the missing people that they had been gradually finding since the attack of Chat Blanc.

He rubbed his eyes, feeling the weariness of all the nightmares and horrors that waited behind his pupils for the night to fall. He stretched, arching his back and stretching it as he moved away from the computer.

"Boy, it can't go on like this, it's not good for your health." Plag nagged, this time not trying to hide his concern with sharp sarcasm or indifferent irony.

"Are there any news of Tikki?" Asked Adrien, avoiding the kwami's stare and question, who made a defeatist grimace of pity.

"No, the master hasn't yet tried to contact me about Tikki...- As he spoke, Plagg saw how he noticed the dishes that had been added to the pile that was at the side of his bed. "But he has asked about you, just like your friends and your father...They'll soon get tired of leaving food for you at the door, Adrien..."

He had to swallow hard to be able to sigh, feeling that he was choking on that pointy sob. He didn't feel strong enough to face the worried look of his kwami; Why was everyone worried about him? Why people wondered where Chat Noir was? If he had just given up on the miraculous, many people would be at their homes instead of filling in another strip on the missing list. Marinette would be at home, Mademoiselle Caline Bustier, his teacher and some fencing classmates... All the citizens of Paris who woke up one morning without knowing what part of who they hoped for would explode as a harmful nuclear bomb and would take from them their loved ones without control.

If only he had rejected the miraculous ... Ladybug would've...

The silence that captivated the night was suddenly interrupted, the familiar wail of a lonely guitar telling its misfortunes to the stars.

Adrien tried to block the melody outside of his mind, closing his eyes with such force that he felt a slight poke in the pupils.

Plagg sighed, wandering around some corner of the room. A few minutes ago he had given up for the moment with him. 

"There he goes again ..." Plagg murmured, looking out the huge window. With no doubt, Paris looked much sadder even though the streetlights woke up every night; it was as if nature and the life that resided in it in an unconscious way, knew that it had to grieve. "I wonder who will it be... They always go out to play at the same song."

The melody filled the silence in Adrien's room, only the moonlight peeking out to see if it wasn't easy for him to fall asleep either.

"You're right, Plagg. I also wonder who it is." He recognized, standing up and walking slowly to the window.

The moon shone down on him, and Plagg felt the urgency that his abilities as kwami could also protect him from the bitter and poisonous pain that was consuming the poor boy. But guilt was something you have to learn to heal by yourself, just like the stitches you learned to knit in your broken heart.

"Maybe we can go find out." He suggested, his green eyes jumping from star to star.

Plagg turned to him, scandalized, to see if he was kidding ,(and for many reasons he wished so) but his face was still as tired and broken as it was a few minutes ago, in front of his screen.

"Are you out of your mind!? Adrien, I barely managed to get you to eat something and you have hardly slept in the last days." The kwami reminded him, moving closer to him. "How are you going to go out?! I don't even know how you stay on your feet!"

Adrien started to open one of the windows; the breeze discreetly stroked his skin, and for a moment he was overwhelmed. With all the time he had been buried in the darkness of his room, that breeze made him feel as if his skin had been numb all along.

"Adrien, this ain't a good idea, what if something happens?" Plagg insisted, the urgency taking control of his voice seeing that he kept ignoring him.

For the first time in days, Adrien was suddenly looking into his eyes, the dark circles hanging under his eyelids, and the corners of his lips seemed to weigh him down like lead.

He wondered when the kid's energetic smile would return. If, in the midst of all the emptiness that was consuming his heart, there would be room for new smiles.

"Don't worry, Plagg, " Adrien reassured him , "I'll be with you to make sure nothing happens to me. Furthermore, what else is there for me to lose?

Plagg wished he could answer to that, to tell him that he still had a lot to lose, that he could lose everything, including himself... But he guessed that wasn't what he needed to hear. He knew this was what Adrien needed.

Finally, Plagg sighed, giving up.

"Okay, boy," he gave up "let's go for a walk."

Adrien looked at his kwami, a grateful faint smile sprouting subtly on his face. Plagg, relieved to see that his so reckless decision had cheered him, smiled back at him.

* * *

Night was uncorking itself over him, and blades of stars peeked out from the thick fabric of the sky.

Luka scratched the strings of his guitar with solemn sadness, and Chat Noir felt that the lyrics that accompanied the chords filtered through his lungs and clung, fearful, to his heart, scared of disappearing in the dark folds of the night.

"I'm going mad," he sang, his voice soft, but clearly hurt. Chat Noir assumed that he had sung the same song every night he had come out to play, since the melody had always been the same "don't know what the hell's gotten into me; oh, I never used to be so weak."

Chat Noir closed his eyes, letting the pain of his words merge with his in his heart which, hurt, beat.

_"You're right, Chat Noir." Finally Ladybug gave up. When Chat turned around, his partner's face was carved in cold loneliness._

_Chat bowed his head and wagged his tail playfully._

_"I'm glad you understand the situation, bugaboo." He smiled, and the loving nickname sank into Ladybug's skin like a splinter. He extended his offering arm. "Now it's your turn to give me your miraculous and all this can end."_

_Ladybug sighed, shaking her head, her blue eyes sparkling crystal clear._

_"I'm sorry, Chat ... but you know I can't do that! We made a promise to protect them along with Paris at any cost!" She insisted, trying, once again, to rescue the Chat Noir that slept within Chat Blanc._

_But there was only a sigh of boredom._

_"Oh Marinette, you'll never change, right?" He mocked. "Always so correct and so fair."_

_"And yet I didn't manage to save you, kitty..." She recognized, her soft smile struggling sadly, assuming defeat._

_Chat Blanc sighed and shrugged, then threw his arm up. A flash began to grow in his palm._

_"Don't worry about it, my lady, you'll only feel a small pinch." He warned, his face cold and expressionless as the cataclysm of light grew._

_Ladybug began to walk towards him, the tears falling uncontrollably; she didn't even have the strength to cry, so she just let them flow._

_"You're wrong, kitty" she said, standing in front of him. Chat Blanc looked at her, disinterested, "the pain I feel is unbearable."_

_Ladybug looked him in the eye, looking for any reaction, but in Chat Blanc there was no more what darkness and cold._ _Ladybug took him by his hand. "And I'm so sorry you ended up like this because of me."_

_Chat Blanc watched, curious, how their hands fit, their fingers intertwining. But soon lost interest and looked at Ladybug again._

_»"But you're right about something"he rose his eyebrows; Ladybug stretched out her free arm and grabbed his wrist, feeling the energy of the increasing cataclysm vibrating throughout his bones"–I am Ladybug, and I always do what is right and fair."_

_Slowly, Ladybug lowered Chat Blanc's arm, placing the cataclysm between them. It's brightness reflected in her tears, which had never dried up._

_Chat Blanc looked her in the eye. He was already feeling the electricity of the cataclysm in his chest, altering his pulse._

_Ladybug smiled one last time before the light ate them up, and in the last second she launched her lucky charm. Paris would come alive again._

_Before vanishing she whispered: "See you in a minute, kitten."_

"Chat Noir?"

Luka's voice brought him back: he had stopped playing at some point, and tears streamed down Chat's face, drying in the cold night's breeze.

The light kept coming out of the threshold of his cabin, so he hadn't gone to sleep; he must have heard him cry while he was secluded in that tortuous memory.

Chat Noir crawled up to the railing at the stern of the ship, next to Luka. He was sitting in a lawn chair with the guitar carefully cradled in his arms.

"Goodnight." He greeted, trying to make his voice sound as lively as his exhaustion would allow him.

Luka, however, didn't attempt to hide the pain in his voice, nor the concern in his eyes.

"Is everything alright?" He asked, "is there a new akuma? Do you need help?"

Luka had already started to put the guitar away, ready to stand up, but Chat Noir stopped him and shook his head.

"I'm actually surprised that you offered me help ..." He confessed, lowering his ears.

"What do you mean?" He asked, confused. "Why wouldn't I do it?"

Chat didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"I'd understand if you didn't want to; after all, this was all my fault... "He pointed out bitterly "... The missing people, the destruction, Ladybug... It's all my fault..."

Chat Noir didn't need to look at Luka to know that he had barely chewed his comment; he had already heard from Alya and Marinette's parents how bad it was going for him, getting worse with each passing day that Marinette didn't show up.

He understood him.

Adrien and her were also very good friends, and the fear that she would never return because of him was eating him away.

"That's not true, Chat Noir." Luka argued. Despite the situation, he still seemed to have the strength to try to cheer him up. "Without you–"

"Without me, Ladybug would still be alive." He interrupted him. He didn't want to hurt Luka, much less pay his mistakes with him, but he was tired of people treating him as if none of this could've been avoided if only he hadn't been chosen as Chat Noir. "If only someone else had been her partner, she wouldn't have received that cataclysm."

"She did it to save you, to save us," Luka corrected; "As much as it hurts, she had to do it to burn the evil in you. To destroy the akuma..." Luka was silent for a few seconds, squaring up inside" But that's what you love from her, right? "he asked." That she would give everything to do the right thing and save her loved ones... Even if the price to pay is her own life..."

This time, Chat accepted the silent pact, letting Luca's words sink into him. 

He knew that Ladybug had done what she consider necessary, and he knew that Luka was right that it was the only way, surely; but that didn't make everything less painful, if anything way more. He wished that he had been able to force some sense on Chat Blanc and that he had destroyed himself instead of taking Ladybug.

Luka had started playing the same tune again, his notes propelling the tears, which began to fall so fast that Chat barely had time to wipe them away. 

«Ladybug ... If only I could go back in time and fix everything...»

"But it's you and your half awake eyes, as you are saying goodbye... " Sang Luka. Chat Noir noticing, now that he heard him in person, that his voice cracked and that the emotion sometimes interrupted him when he sang.

Luka looked at the moon as he scratched the guitar, and the tears ran down his face. 

The night was slowly dying on them, and at some point the sun would come and he would have, like everyone else, to bring up a new day of classes or work when ironically, every day he had to pick up new pieces of himself after being torn apart; because Dawn would come again, and there would be no news of Marinette.

He'd seen people mourn their loss already; others, however, walked in uncertainty, only remembering how liberating it was to cry in confusion.

But Luka wanted to believe that Marinette was still there, somewhere, lost. That's why he went out to play and sing every night: to see if he could guide her back home with his music.

Chat Noir and Luka stayed like this for a while until Chat had to go before transforming, after that, Luka kept playing, again all by himself.

"Cause you know you can and you'll go" he sang "oh, you'll go away slow like you've done it before... And I know you have..."

«Marinette... » He thought as he looked at the stars.

"Cause you're good at falling out of love... "

«I hope you can hear me, wherever you are...»

"And saying goodbye..."

«Please...»

"And I'm not..."

«Come back home...»

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there ^^
> 
> Soooo sorry for this ^^'. I wish I could stop finding inspiration in pain but that's a struggle that's been going for 17 years. 
> 
> Anyhow, I feel like no-one has ever stopped to think on how all this could've ended, and how it could've affected some people like Luka (WHO WON'T SEE MARI AS JUST A FRIEND HSHSHS) and Chat. This ain't the best fanfiction but give me a rest, I've been working nonstop... 
> 
> Also I'd like to give a shoutout to Alex Carroll and her song "Still asleep", which inspired this fanfiction. Feel free to follow her on insta (@cardboardgirl_ ) or leave a like on YouTube (Alex Carroll), she's amazing!


End file.
